BF Success Story: 1984 Chevrolet Corvette For $4k!
UPDATE 8/26/2019 – From Paul – Thank you to the good folks at Barn Finds! My 1984 Corvette featured here sold in six days and at the full asking price. What’s not to like? I really appreciated the suggestions Josh made to make my initial ad a little more eye-catching. There was limited interest after the initial flurry of comments and questions and it appeared to me that I might need to think about dropping my asking price. Josh suggested a few more images and that did the trick. Thanks guys! A note to any reader trying to decide if a BF ad might work – I strongly suggest it, it is worth the very reasonable fee. I had calls from all over the USA and overseas much to my surprise.
UPDATE 8/20/2019 – Paul has sent us more photos of his Corvette! It really does look to be in nice shape for $4k, you really can’t go wrong with this one. Be sure to take another look and message him with your best offer!
What Makes It Special? It’s the Corvette people love to hate! And it is 35 years old. If you want a perfect car, keep scrolling or go find a $15,000 1984 Corvette. In a few years that one will be worth what I’m asking. Save time and $10,000! And I didn’t put my thumb over the license plate image.
Body Condition: No rust and the birdcage is to die for! Paint is in good shape except for the rear bumper which was not painted correctly at some point. The paint flakes off easily. Interior in good shape. definite wear on the driver’s seat. Duh! It gets used a lot more, doesn’t it? The carpets are in good condition. Rear compartment carpet slightly faded. And the wheels are mounted correctly! Hate to have the fins pointing the wrong way. Even better – NO LUGGAGE RACK!!
Mechanical Condition: New tires all around last month. It has the dreaded 4+3 Doug Nash transmission written about in the Bible as a sign of the End Days. In addition, it has the super-stiff Z-51 suspension which I happen to love and believe it also does not deserve the lousy reputation it has. Needs valve cover gaskets, has an exhaust manifold leak, brakes appear OK. E-brake works. Will get New York State inspection in a few weeks.
Paul’s Corvette sure looks like a great buy! While it might not be the most desirable year, it would still be a fun driver and for $4,199 how can you go wrong?
- Asking Price: $4,199.99
- Location: Rochester New York
- Mileage: 80,327
- Title Status: Clean
- VIN: 1G1AY0782E5148596
Do you want to be the next BF Success Story? List your car here on Barn Finds for only $50!
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Comments
Kudos to the seller for his honesty and humor.
People cuss or love them, but this looks to be a very decent price for a good car. Again, many bad mouth 4+3 tranny but there are those that have put 150K or more miles on them without problems if driven and shifted properly. Same with the Crossfire engine, it’s basically a continuation of the C3 line, so it’s available and people know how to work on them.
The only real issue I know or heard of is some of the 84 parts are a one year only item, so if everything is there then it’s a non issue.
C4’s are great driving cars, here’s hoping whoever gets it enjoys it. It is great to take a night cruise in them and they are wonderful cruising cars.
I know what you mean on finding parts being harder to find.
The 1983 Corvette is even harder to find parts for that I kept from the plant when employees took them home to test drive on weekend for quality. I guess the transmission failure and electrical issues making it inoperable in the driveway allowed me to save getting it one piece at a time like Johnny Cash did…😮😜
Please correct me if I am wrong……there was no corvette in 1983.
84 was the first year for this new body after 68-82 and production/issues lagged so much it there was no Corvette for 1983.
What would it cost to throw an LS in this?
Head over to Corvetteforum,com. There are many folks there that have put a LS into a C4. In fact I think there’s someone over there currently putting one into an 84. Every time someone does one and puts a thread together on their project, it just makes it easier for the next person to find answers on how to do it. LS’s are easier to find in decent prices and once the other aspects are worked out it’s easier to accomplish.
You lose the mpg readout and a couple of other little things from what I remember.
Neither of the mechanical issues mentioned seem major. Fix ’em and enjoy the car! If you have to have a ‘Vette but can’t spend over $5,000, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better one than this. I like it, but unfortunately can’t justify buying such a car.
I was working at a Ford dealership and the GM of the neighboring Chevrolet dealership was good friends with our GM. The guy runs into service lane, leaves the car running and goes inside, accidentally locking his keys in the car. It had the 1984 security system. The GM came out and realized that both sets of keys were locked in the car.
I was the asst Service Manager and in those days all the keys were put in the cars for sale in the lot, and then picked up each night and the doors locked. So obviously cars got locked up with their keys almost every night. Each morning I would come in early and find out which ones were locked up and unlock them with a slim jim that I had a friend of mine make for me (much thinner with three different notches to unlock different cars.
Because I opened them all the time I was pretty good at unlocking almost any car very quickly. I walked over to the passenger side and flipped my slim jim over to the GM style doors side. As the guy says…”this has the anti theft door locking system with power door locks, you will never get it opened” I slid it down the window at about a 60 degree angle. And as I slid it by the lock I caught it just right and the locks popped. It didn’t take even 3 seconds to unlock that car. I mean, I hit it just right. Didn’t even have to pull up on the slim jim. I caught it that well.
He just shook his head and said, “That’s the damndest thing I have ever seen. We charge $800 (or some big number) for that anti-theft device and you opened this quicker than if I were using the keys”
Don’t ask me why but I have never forgotten that.
Bruce, Did you ever consider a second career in the auto-repo, or “midnight acquisition” business?? :-) :-)
Very nice at that price
At 4k kinda hard to complain about anything..its pretty I wish I had it..no money no funny
As the owner of a C4 (’90 conv’t w 6-spd) I’m biased towards loving this generation of Corvette. The ’84, being the whipping boy of this generation interests me as I’ve never driven this maligned 4+3 transmission and doubt that the Z51 suspension option was as punishing as some make it out to be.
Re. the discussion on LS swaps, I’ve yet to see any cohesive swap packages that retain full dashboard functionality and would rather just build the already stout L98 to a higher spec. unless someone out there knows something I don’t.
For four grand, the C4 is really tough to beat. That’s the price of a gnarly condition Kia Rio. Budget permitting, a guy can get a creampuff low-mileage C4 ZR1 for as little as $15k, which is a steal and likely will only appreciate. What I find remarkable is that if you want to buy a nice ’86 Honda Sportbike like the ones I have, be prepared to fork out $10K (my VFR Interceptor) to $17k (my CBX Supersport). C4s just don’t get the love.
Good luck finding parts and service for the ZR-1 LT5 engine if you ever need either. And make sure the injectors have been changed over on any Pre-1993 LT5 to make sure you can put an ethanol blend in it. Trust me, there are much safer ways to spend money on 375 bhp. Ask the folks who paid $100,000 in 1990 to be the first kid on the block with a ZR-1.
For years the 1968 Corvettes got a bad rap (I’ve owned three and loved them all); now the 1984 gets all the negative flack. My son has an ‘84 and it has given good service. Any vehicle can give problems especially when mistreated and not maintained!
The 2 things only this corvette gen has going for it is that kewl hood/fender combo that lifts up for service.
& the later ’94 zr1 DOHC motor on this same gen was a sight to behold.
I don’t think the upcoming mid eng vette should be showing off its ancient OHV motor lol – they should cover it up(ditch the transparent cover) & do the same to the aerovette concept, regarding what they swapped in to replace the 4 rotor motor!
Ancient OHV is as old modern OHC
What I hated most about these is that 80’s looking Atari gauge cluster & that wrap around bumper car, bump strip. Wheels have to go as well. Drove a brand new one in ’84 a friend bought. Punched it at a light & was very impressed at the acceleration as the tires didn’t spin like my ’70. Just bolted! But $3000-$4k is the norm for these.
This is a good deal for a stick Vette, good color combo, looks very presentable. If it it was in FL it would be tough to say no.
1983. Corvette?
my son stuart also tried to buy this car for the full asking price BUT the seller seemed to NOT want to deal with us because we were Australian ! when my son just said ‘SEND ME YOUR BANK DETAILS SO I CAN DEPOSIT THE CASH” the seller said “too late ,it’s sold . we have already bought the 1947 Studebaker champion convertible from George in ventura ,last month & it’s about to be shipped to us in Australia right now pity the corvette isn’t coming with it
Not true, and I am not clear on what part of “Too late, it’s sold” is problematic. I was handed cash. Should I have turned it down based on the possibility you may have purchased the car? Being Australian had nothing to do with anything. I was also asked to provide a copy of the title along with my bank details. In this day and age, with scams happening everyday, there was no way I was providing that information. I would not provide that information to my next door neighbor. I also informed the potential buyer that I had already lost a week dealing with a chap from, wait for it- Australia! who was “shocked”at the figure he was quoted to ship the car to Oz. That bloke told me he had imported a 1970 Corvette at some point, so he should not have been surprised. I had two other very interested buyers and did not want to risk losing their interest waiting to find out if I had a legitimate buyer or not. I’m sorry you are not happy with the results. I did learn a good lesson from selling the Corvette and assisting a friend with the sale of her 1981 Fiat 2000 over the past month – I will most likely donate my next car to charity when it is time to part with it.